Applied Materials gains first Italian ‘SunFab’ customer

Applied Materials has announced that it has won its first customer in Italy for its ‘SunFab’ 5.7m2 turnkey thin-film line. The new customer is Moncada Energy Group s.r.l., a leading private Italian producer of renewable energy currently using wind farm technology. Moncada is expected to build a 40MW plant in Campofranco, Sicily.

“We believe that the large 5.7 square meter modules produced by the SunFab line will enable lower production and installation costs, making them an excellent solution for quickly achieving grid parity in Italy,” said Salvatore Moncada, CEO and founder of Moncada Energy Group. “Based on Applied’s strong leadership in manufacturing, and its capability to provide complete service support – which is unprecedented in today’s solar industry – we are confident that Applied can help us quickly start up our SunFab line and achieve production in 2010.”

“Applied Materials is very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Moncada on its first solar venture and we appreciate their confidence in our capabilities,” said Dr. Mark Pinto, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Applied’s Energy and Environmental Solutions Group. “We are excited to expand our role in Italy – which has the geographic potential to realize early grid parity – from supplying crystalline silicon equipment through our Baccini business to producing the world’s largest thin film modules with our SunFab line.”

The SunFab line will initially produce large 5.7m2 single junction PV modules and will be used for Moncada’s own energy projects.